Clinton to appear at Afghan women's event

Hillary Clinton will appear alongside fellow former first lady Laura Bush and Secretary of State John Kerry at a high-profile event on Afghan women's rights on Friday, adding to the mounting speculation about her presidential ambitions.

Clinton has increased her public visibility in recent months, launching a Twitter account, penning a deal for a memoir of her years as President Obama's secretary of State, and publicly campaigning for Virginia Gov.-elect Terry McAuliffe.

Her appearance Friday at a Georgetown University symposium will allow her to highlight her efforts to empower women around the world, including her push to increase the number of women in public service around the world when she was at the State Department and her current “No Ceilings” initiative at the Clinton Foundation.

The event is hosted by the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security. Its executive director, Melanne Verveer, was Clinton's chief of staff at the White House and served as the first-ever ambassador-at-large for Global Women's Issues in Clinton's State Department.

The event aims to address opportunities and solutions for sustaining the significant progress Afghan women and girls have made in the past 10 years. It is also co-sponsored by the George W. Bush Institute, the U.S. Afghan Women's Council — of which Clinton and Bush are both co-chairwomen — and the U.S. Alliance in Support of the Afghan People.

“As Afghanistan navigates its transition, the role of Afghan women will be critical to Afghanistan’s future peace, security and stability,” Verveer said in a statement. “This event allows representatives from the global community to focus attention on the gains made by Afghan women in the last decade and how to best support Afghans to ensure this trajectory moving forward.”